Women demand Tokyo Medical Univ. compensate over entry exam rigging

29.10.2018

Women who applied unsuccessfully to Tokyo Medical University are demanding it pay a total of 7.69 million yen ($ 68,600) in compensation for manipulating entrance exam results in favor of male applicants, their lawyers said Monday.

The 24 applicants, who took the medical school’s entrance exams in 2006 or later, are demanding it pay 100,000 yen in damages for every year an applicant took the entrance exam and refund exam fees.

«We would not have applied if we had known the illegal score rigging, and it has caused us great emotional distress,» the women said in a document presented to the university. They also demanded their scores and their correct application results be disclosed.

According to the lawyers, the 24 women in their teens to 30s include those who failed the university’s entry tests and are seeking another chance, undergraduates studying medicine at other universities, and those who pursued different careers after giving up becoming doctors.

The group demands a reply from the university within two weeks. «We want the university to deal with it as soon as possible,» said Sakura Uchikoshi, who heads the lawyers’ group.

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Women to demand Tokyo med univ. compensate over entry test rigging

Med school exam scandal exposes bias against female doctors in Japan

Tokyo med univ. admits curbing women’s enrollment, vows to stop

Tokyo Medical University admitted in August it had manipulated exam scores for over 10 years to curb female enrollment. It said it did so to avoid a shortage of doctors at affiliated hospitals, because female doctors tend to resign or take long periods of leave after getting married or giving birth.

The education ministry has probed 81 medical schools in Japan since the problem was brought to light.

In its midterm report, the ministry said more universities are likely to have manipulated entrance exam results against female applicants and favored particular individuals, without disclosing the names of those institutions.